WE MADE A GARDEN!

I have been wanting to make a garden for several years now, but by the time I would remember I wanted a garden, it would be too late.

Up until Saturday, I didn't know anything about gardening. Now, I know maybe... 3 things about gardening? I know that I am supposed to water it every day. I know I am supposed to check my tomato vines to make sure they climb up the tomato... wire thingies. (I don't know what the wire things are called.) I also now know that you plant the ACTUAL SEEDS from inside a butternut squash.

See!? I'm almost an expert now.

The tiny little bed which will hopefully yield some squash!

Who wants to come cut it for me?

This year, I remembered I wanted a garden in time to actually make one. Luckily, my parents know all about gardening. They came over on Saturday to help me. I started digging the garden bed the night before but my dad helped me make it longer and wider. While my dad and I did the grunt work, my mom went to Stauffer's to get the plants, herbs, and seeds we needed.

Mom took charge. Dad shoveled. Paul provided iced coffees.

They brought soil, fertilizer, landscape timbers, and most of the tools we needed for the day. (True story: The night before they came, my mom asked me if I had a shovel to start digging the garden bed and I had no clue whether we had a shovel or not. We are not "yard work" people!)

We're keeping it small to start. It's about 16 feet long and 2.5 feet deep.

Fertilizer on my shorts. "I puhped my pants!"

It took three hours, but by the end, we had lots of yummy things planted:

4 tomato plants

4 pepper plants

basil

parsley

cilantro

butternut squash

eggplant

My friend Bree gave me some sunflower seeds and brussel sprout seeds too. I will plant the brussel sprouts in August and the sunflowers I already planted on the other side of the yard.

Later that day, Paul and I went to Lowes to get some chicken wire to keep the bunnies out. I went to put it up the next day but realized the roll I bought was only 5 feet, not 25 feet. Oops. Had to go back Monday and get the right stuff. I only cut myself once when putting it up!

The only thing left to do is get rid of the poison ivy that is growing through the fence from our neighbor's yard. There is A LOT of it. Two years ago, there was only a little bit of it, but I still got poison ivy so bad while I was weeding one day. I had to go to the doctor to get meds to make it go away. It was torture. So this is the plan...

I'm going to wait until my neighbor is not home and then 

spray all of the poison ivy and anything around it! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Do you have a garden? What do you plant?

Any tips for my first stab at gardening?